First off: was that the best season for a television program ever? I'm not sure yet, as I'll reserve judgment until I watch it a second time (when the DVD comes out), but it just might have been. There were so many payoff moments this year, growing out of that final scene from Season Three with Jack and Kate at the airport, and running straight through to the way that the writers, incredibly, gave us the next couple minutes after that pivotal, jaw-dropping moment at the end of last season, here in Season Four's finale (when we surely thought there was nothing left to show there). Even though it was only 14 episodes long (rather than the planned 16 or the typical 22 - 24), Season Four felt jam-packed with twists, revelations and heart-stopping WTF moments!
At the end of Season Three, the big question in my mind was: where do they go from here? After all, we'd seen beyond the island for the first time ever, and I couldn't figure out if that meant that we'd been given a glimpse of "life after Lost" or something else entirely. This season we've come to realize that it was the latter, thankfully (showing the end of the story, partway through, without killing any remaining suspense is a real trick shot to pull off, as we found out with Babylon 5).
The fourth season was as different in tone, feel and pacing from its predecessor as each of the preceding ones had been, which is one of the reasons this show works so well. There's no return to the status quo to disappoint the viewer, because there's no status quo! Presumably next year we'll learn more about what happened in the outside world during those three Oceanic Six years, as well as (maybe) events on the island over that same period - although it's possible that the island simply moved forward in time, in which case nothing happened! I have to believe that Miles, Charlotte and Faraday have more stories in them than we've seen so far, although admittedly that kind of thinking didn't do much good for poor Danielle or Alex! Charlotte as Benry's childhood sweetie still seems like a possibility, although the fiery redhead said that she'd been born on the island, and I'm not sure that lines up with that theory.
The fact that I have virtually no idea what to expect next, mirroring the state of wide-eyed anticipation and confusion that I was in after they blew the lid off the hatch and peered down into the abyss for the first time, or when the Others proclaimed themselves "the good guys" and put the bags over the heads of Jack, Kate and Sawyer, or in that instant when Kate walked out of the shadows at the airport... and that's another reason why Lost rules the TV landscape!
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As usual, it looks like I'm the Lost naysayer. I found that at some point the number of "twists" turned the "plot" into little more than a series of random events. Character-wise, there didn't seem to be any motivation for people to do the things they did, especially the minor characters, who seemed to be there only to inject artificial problems or solutions into the story.
The "flash" parts of the story, both back and forward, have been the show's saving grace this season. Even so, hands up anyone who was surprised to see Ben, whose "sacrifice" meant he "could never leave the island", pop up in that last scene with "Jeremy". (You in the back, do you have your hand up or are you just scratching? OK, thanks.) I guess that's unanimous, then: no one.
There'd better be one heck of a payoff at the end of the series next year. I'm really just in Deep Space Nine mode at this point: started watching the show based on its early promise, and now I'm pretty much stuck seeing it through to the end.
I thought that Ben said that he wouldn't be able to go BACK to the island. And that would presumably line up with what we've seen in the flash forwards.
Did I hear it wrong?
Of course, Ben's a proven liar...so who knows???
Naysayers really should get their facts straight since it tends to take the wind out of their sails when they get them wrong... ;-)
The line Ben delivered was, "Whoever moves the island can never come back." So far, we haven't seen Benry back on the island (which isn't to say he might not at some point in the future, since as Boneman points out, Benry lies. A lot.) We've seen him off the island in the flashforwards, and we've now seen him trying to convince Jack to lead his own group back to the island, but that's it. It's kind of amusing to me that someone would take such a condescending tone in a criticism of a plot point where they've misheard what was actually said! Ouch!
Also, both Vicki and I expected to see Benry in the coffin (not popping up behind Jack in the funeral home.. Vicki actually jumped when he did so!) since we'd discussed the possibility at one point between seasons that it made sense Benry's funeral would be the one nobody would attend (after all, who would?) That was one of several theories we formulated on that front. I'll admit that Locke was also one of our guesses as to who was in the coffin, but of course when you eventually guess everyone, as we seemed to have done, you'll naturally get it "right." ;-)
One other small correction to PeterJ's comments above: Lost is not scheduled to wrap up next season (its fifth), but rather the season after (its sixth). Two more years of Lost, including 34 episodes (17 and 17). That's lots of time to wrap up whatever mysteries they plan to resolve (I'm not someone who needs every loose end tied up, but I do hope that they tackle the majority of them).
Don't worry, my sails are still fully furled. ;)
Thanks for correcting the line, which is much more ambiguous (surprise!) than what I'd remembered: it could just as easily mean "could never come back" to the island as "could never come back" from the island. My mistake for thinking they'd want to leave; not sure how I'd have gotten a silly idea like that.
Ben is a prime example of the randomness that's turned me off of the show: he's there for no reason other than to make things difficult for whatever character(s) the writers need to make things difficult for. I suppose it's possible to interpret that as Ben always and exclusively doing whatever's best for Ben, but jeez, War and Peace is shorter than his hidden agenda at this point.
I'm not sure I can make it through two more seasons. Wishful thinking, I guess. :)
Hey Peter, crazy idea just popped into my head: if the show's causing you that much angst, why not just stop watching it? I know, I know... not nearly as much fun as watching it and bitching about it afterward. What was I thinking? (Like I said, crazy idea!) :-)
Ben's been extremely protective of the island all along, so I can't quite see how "can never come back" would be interpreted as "can never leave it" (especially since he was on the island when he said it, and has previously been shown to be off of it in the future) but I guess I just pay more attention to details like that than most people.
While I cruelly take pleasure in teasing PeterJ's cool reaction to Lost, I also can't help but emphasize with him since I went through the very same thing with at least two TV shows that I can think of.
X-Files, when I first started watching it around about Season Two, held such promise in terms of revelations that might occur and change the series' landscape in truly impressive ways. Instead, season after season, we got a boring old return to the status quo. Eventually I stopped watching, and not too too long after that, the series ended.
Similarly, Alias (another JJ Abrams production) constantly promised big things but rarely ever delivered on them. I don't know if it was a case of not wanting to go too far away from what was going on in the real world, but whatever the reason: the creators stopped short of presenting anything that lived up to the hype of the storylines. Once again, I lost interest and bailed. I think that was a year or so before it wrapped up.
So anyone having that sort of response to Lost, and its seemingly bottomless pit of new mysteries, might be well-advised to give up and look for thrills elsewhere. I personally couldn't be happier with the series than I am right now, but that's just me.
The reason I'm still watching is in my first post: it's a completion thing at this point. Funny you should mention The X-Files and Alias, because they're the other two "bottomless pit" shows I put up with until their respective ends. Heck, I'm even still watching Smallville (which actually did get a little better once Lana had her brain turned to goo... or maybe it was mine...).
Anyway, I recognize that I'm among a small minority when it comes to Lost, and you're all welcome to your opinions as long as I'm welcome to mine. I happen to think the emperor's naked, but as the man says, if that's the sort of thing you like, you'll like that sort of thing. :)
Wow, with that kind of logic, I'd still be reading X-Men (all of them). :-)
OK, you keep calling out what you see as nudity, and the rest of us will continue to enjoy the Emperor's splendid outfit that amazes and entertains us week after week. Everybody wins! (um, except you, I guess)
I loved the finale up until the final scene. No problems with that scene in particular, I was just hoping for one extra big jaw dropping moment to follow it. I've been spoiled by the previous two finales I suppose, so finding out Locke was in the coffin (albeit cool) didn't seem that major.
However, I think it was absolutely the best season so far of the best show on television right now. I can't imagine how Peter can find the notion that there are 2 more seasons to come tedious rather than exciting!
I don't agree with the criticism about lack of character motivations - offhand I can't think of any actions for which there weren't reasonable motivations. I think all of the characters on Lost are tremendously well developed considering just how much is going on with the plot and how many of them there are ... the writers must have quite a difficult time working character development into the scripts, and I think they've done a tremendous job of doing so.
Can't wait for more!
I couldn't agree more on the character development. Finding out new things about Jack, Kate, Locke, Sun, Saiyid and the rest is one of the best parts of the show, and the writers have done an excellent job while still moving the plot along. If only other shows worked half as hard at making their characters real to the viewers...
I'm still stuck on Peter still hanging in with Smallville! Wow, you do like punishment! We finally gave up but I was sure we were the last people in the universe still watching Lana and gagging.
I find TV more disappointing than good these last few years. Very few shows managing to keep my interest - so I blame the writers or the studio editors!
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